The present invention relates to a method for entering a preceding vehicle autonomous following mode, and an arrangement for entering and operating a preceding vehicle autonomous following mode.
Adaptive vehicle cruise control systems for maintaining a set speed of the vehicle, and to adapt the vehicle speed upon approaching a slower vehicle from behind are well-known. Such adaptive systems however only to a small extent reduce risk of collision, reduce fuel consumption and increases driver comfort.
Document US 2007/0083318 A1 discloses a method and system to control forward movement of a vehicle, where a preceding target vehicle is automatically followed. The system involves a dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) protocol for communicating with the preceding vehicle, forward looking sensors, and control of engine and braking when the system operates in an automatic following routine.
The problems with the solution according to the prior art are that driver comfort is low due to the partial restriction of driver responsibility, and that communication between the vehicles is restricted to ad-hoc dedicated short-range communication, which can be difficult to manage and deploy, and lack of necessary communication reliability.
There is thus a need for an improved method and arrangement for entering preceding vehicle autonomous following mode that removes the above mentioned disadvantages.
It is desirable to provide a method and arrangement for entering and operating a preceding vehicle autonomous following mode, where the previously mentioned problems are partly avoided.
According to an aspect of the invention, a method is provided comprising the steps of registering at least one preceding vehicle in front of a host vehicle by means of at least a first and a second sensor device, identifying said at least one preceding vehicle, comparing said at least one preceding vehicle with vehicle data in a remote database system, and upon match establishing a communication channel between said at least one preceding vehicle and said host vehicle, identifying to an operator of said host vehicle preceding vehicles with which said communication channel has been established, obtaining from said operator of said host vehicle a selection of a target vehicle to engage following of, and engaging autonomous following mode of said target vehicle, wherein a vehicle control system automatically controls at least the following three main functions of said host vehicle: forward speed, steering, and braking.
According to another aspect of the invention, an arrangement is provided comprising at least a first and a second sensor device for registering at least one preceding vehicle in front of a host vehicle, a vehicle control system for identifying said at least one preceding vehicle, a remote database system comprising vehicle data with which said at least one preceding vehicle is compared, such that a communication channel is established upon match between said at least one preceding vehicle and said host vehicle, an identifying device with which preceding vehicles with which said communication channel has been established are identified to an operator of said host vehicle, obtaining part for obtaining from said operator a selection of a target vehicle to engage following of and a vehicle control system which controls at least the following three main functions of said host vehicle: forward speed, steering, and braking, for operation said host vehicle in an autonomous following mode.
By comparing the identity of the preceding vehicle with vehicle data in a remote database system, and upon match establishing a communication channel between the preceding vehicle and the host vehicle, establishment of initial vehicle to vehicle communication is simplified, communication can be established by means of any desired communication protocol, deployment and upgrades are managed centrally, vehicles included the database system can be better controlled and observed, services may be provided to the members of the database system via the communication channel, and wireless communication unification is assured. Hence, a more reliable and secure communication is achieved that is easy to manage and upgrade.
Furthermore, the vehicle control system automatically controls all three main functions of said host vehicle, namely forward speed, steering, and braking for improved driver comfort and increased safety. Depending on the latency in communication between proceeding vehicle and host vehicle, the range gap between said vehicles can be reduced to a few meters, thus leading to significant reduction of fuel consumption.